I recently read the book DYING TO BE ME, MY JOURNEY FROM CANCER, TO NEAR DEATH, TO TRUE HEALING by Anita Moorjani (Dying To Be Me) and I just had to write a review and share it with you! As a brief overview of the story…Anita was suffering with cancer, stage 4, and her body was shutting down. She entered a deep coma and as doctors waited for her life to end, she was experiencing “the other side”. When she regained consciousness (totally not expected), her cancer spontaneously healed and all her physical ailments improved. She is now a healthy and happy woman! She chose to come back, she says, and not stay “there” because she wanted to share her experience and their (Spirit’s) message with the world.

What I love about this story is that it is a documented case. Meaning there are actual FACTS backing up her story…as far as the cancer being present, her physical condition during her near-death experience and the spontaneous healing of her cancer.

I was inspired by the story for it had a wonderful, positive message. I was also excited to discover that some of the things Anita shared, mirrored sentiments that are expressed in my Tess Schafer-Medium series! I want to share with you a few of the things I got out of this book. I encourage anyone else who has read it to share their thoughts and what they got out of it as well! Or tell me what you think of this post!

One thing Anita learned was that “Religion is just a path for finding truth: Religion is not truth. It is just a path. And different people follow different paths.” I love this because it is something I can readily accept. There are so many religions and I used to wonder…which one is the “right” one? Her concept embraces them all and tells us that no matter the path we take (the religion we choose to follow) they all lead to God. (Yay!) How we learn the lessons we wish to learn is a personal journey for each of us. Even when it seems we are sharing the same path, it isn’t the EXACT same path. I find it quite comforting that we all will learn what we need to know…eventually.

Anita also states that “there was no other way of communicating in that realm other than through our emotions.” Wow! Not only does my character Tess Schafer state this quite often, but it is something I believe and have experienced myself! Communication with the spirit world is not always done with words. That’s why mediums have to navigate through their emotions very carefully. Their interpretation of the communication might not be how the recipient of the communication would interpret it.

Speaking of emotions, Anita says that “our feelings are actually what drive our physical reality.” Interesting! Another statement she made that gave me some peace of mind was that “Everything happens when we’re ready for it to happen.” This really makes a lot of sense because if we aren’t ready for something, then we aren’t going to understand it, or embrace it or learn from it. We can’t, because we aren’t ready! This is why I am always trying to “ready” myself by constantly seeking to learn new things.

Anita talks about connecting with her deceased friend Soni during her sojourn on “the other side” and says that “my essence merged with Soni’s and I became her. I understood that she was here, there, and everywhere. She was able to be in all places at all times for all her loved ones.” This was quite interesting to me because many people ask how it is possible for their loved one to respond to several people at the same time. If they were watching over one person, then it seems logical that they cannot be watching over another. Yet this shows that’s not the case. This is something I’ve always believed and I’m excited that her experience validates this belief for me.

Her experience with time was another issue that coincides with my beliefs and is also something my character Tess often refers to. Anita says “Time felt different in that realm, too, and I felt all moments at once. I was aware of everything that pertained to me–past, present, and future–simultaneously. I became conscious of what seemed to be simultaneous lives playing out.” Physicist have long laid claim to the concept that time…past, present, and future…happens simultaneously. This is where the concept of time travel comes from! How amazing that she came to understand this and experience it for herself. Also, she mentions her awareness of other lives! Since I am a strong believer in past lives and reincarnation, this resonated strongly with my own beliefs. So much so that I even wrote a novel based on this very concept titled No Matter What!

Another thing that struck Anita in a profound way was how she felt while “there”. In her spirit state she realized she was not who she always thought herself to be. She says “Here I am without my body, race, culture, religion, or beliefs…yet I continue to exist! Then what am I? Who am I? I certainly don’t feel reduced or smaller in any way. On the contrary, I haven’t ever been this huge, this powerful, or this all-encompassing. Wow, I’ve never, ever felt this way!”

I loved that she realized her identity “here” in the earth plane is not who she is in the spirit plane! None of us are the same “over there” as we are here. In spirit we are loving entities and identify with no labels! Wouldn’t that be great if we could be like that here in our physical life? But we didn’t come here to be the same as we are “over there”. We came here to experience different identities and that is exactly what we are all doing. When we finally get to the point where we are the same “here” as “there” (when we cannot separate our identity in each realm) then there will be no need to come back (reincarnate).

Another point she learned from the experience is that one must “cultivate a deep love affair with yourself” and Anita believed it was a key element to her spontaneous healing! Once she figured it out that “to be me is to be love“, the lesson, she says, saved her life. The concept here, however, is that to love ones self means to love others as well for each of us are love. Being love, she says, “means being aware of the importance of nurturing my own soul, taking care of my own needs, and not putting myself last all the time.”

Another wonderful point she made is that we already have everything we need (for it lies within us) and that it’s accessible when we allow ourselves to open up to what is true within us. This piggybacks on the concept that all time (past, present, and future) exists at once. Since every possibility already exists, then whatever we desire (and not desire) has already come to pass. We just need to move through that reality and we do it through our belief in its existence! Our reality here, she believes, “is a playground of expression.” (what fun!) We are here (in physical life) to experience, explore and create. And guess what? The things we wish to obtain or attain to…is already ours to obtain or achieve! You just need to ALLOW it into your reality. That is done through belief and excitement!! Anita says that “everything I could ever want to happen in my life already exists in that infinite, nonphysical plane. My only task is to expand my earthly self enough to let it into this realm.” All you need to do is expand your consciousness to “allow universal energy to bring it into (your) reality”. Easy peasy, right?

What I particularly like is the idea that we contain “all the resources” that we “need to navigate through life” and that is because we are “One with Universal energy.” She further makes the claim that WE “are universal energy”! Each one of us, she says, “has this magnificent, magical life force coursing through every single cell”. How amazing is that? How awesome are we!!

The problem, of course, is that our busy lives and all the things we get caught up in “makes us forget that we’re connected to Universal energy and that we have these natural abilities”. When we start listening to and believing what others tell us, it turns us away from the knowledge of our own power. But, and I love this…”emotions are a doorway into the soul”. Wow. This is major. A big, freaking deal!! She says “our feelings about ourselves are actually the most important barometer for determining the condition of our lives!” Read that again. It’s worth it!

One thing that is important to understand is the concept of “being” and “doing”. She explains it thusly: “Being doesn’t mean that we don’t do anything. It’s just that our actions stem from following our emotions and feelings while staying present in the moment. Doing, on the other hand, is future focused, with the mind creating a series of tasks that take us from here to there in order to achieve a particular outcome, regardless of our current emotional state.” One way to determine the difference is to identify your motivation…is it driven by fear or passion? If what you are doing is driven by passion then you are “being”. If what you are doing is driven by fear then you are “doing”.

A big point she brings up is that if we “stop judging ourselves, we’d automatically find less and less need to condemn others”. Wow. What’s that say for all the judgments going on in the world today? Speaking of the world, Anita says “The external world mirrors what we feel about ourselves.” If that’s so, and I believe it is, then our world is filled with people who are filled with fear! Is it because of discontent with our personal lives? I believe so and so does Anita.

“The Universe is contained with us, and what we experience externally is only a reflection”. She believes that no one is truly bad, not at our “core” (soul) and evil, she says, “is only a product of our fears”. If everyone was aware of their magnificence “then we’d no longer be driven by fear. We wouldn’t need rules and jails…or hospitals.” Wow. That, too, is huge!

There’s a lot more shared in this book and it truly is worth a read!! I’ve read it twice and each time I gain more understanding.

I don’t get to read as often as I’d like for I’m busy with my own books but I sure am glad I found this one and took the time to read it! So what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with the things Anita shares?

Okay then, back to my own writing! Working on book 7 of the Tess Schafer-Medium series and finalizing a new edition of book one “Be Still, My Love” (I’ve learned a LOT as a writer since it’s publication and I’m applying those lessons to the new edition. Same story, but the telling of it, I believe, is better!!). Thanks to all for your support and encouragement! The letters and messages I have received about the Tess Schafer series are heart-warming and uplifting!

It’s been quite a while since I last posted and as usual it’s because there’s been a lot going on! My life gets busier and busier. It also seems to be getting harder. Definitely not easier. The older we get, the more we must deal with, especially when it comes to the loss of loved ones. My last blog post was about the sudden loss of my young nephew. We are still dealing with that, our grief, our shock and disbelief and most of all…MISSING his physical presence in our lives. Since then I’ve received countless messages from people in a similar situation…they lost a loved one and now they want to connect with their spirit. They NEED to KNOW for absolute SURE that their loved one is okay.

I am here to tell you this…this I KNOW: our loved ones in spirit do NOT forget about us and they sure as heck to not LEAVE us. They just don’t. They CAN’T because we are all connected spiritually to each other. We share in the same essence of LIFE…the spiritual force of GOD. Now we have many names for God and it doesn’t matter what name is used…he/she/it/Universal Force/Knowing One/Great Spirit/Allah…etc. It all boils down to the same thing. Argue with me if you will and it matters not. It is what it is. Bold statement to make but I’m feeling bold today. I write what spirit moves me to write and today spirit (God) is telling me to write this. So I did.

I have lost many loved ones from physical life…to include many pets!…and even knowing they are in spirit, LIVING on and by no means gone, I still miss them. I still grief for the loss of their physical presence. I offer myself comfort by imagining them in spirit as I expect them to be…gloriously happy! It gives me some measure of peace but doesn’t take away the disappointment I feel for no longer sharing physical life with them.

I must remind you of this…we AGREED to these terms when we entered this life. We KNEW the score, what it would be like to come here, the fact that we were not going to be happy all the time and living a life filled with riches, our every want satisfied. We had that OVER THERE (on the “other side” as we like to call it). We entered this life to experience things…feelings of all types, conditions of all sorts. Some were born to feel what it’s like to be rich and famous, to have anything they want, others were born to experience what it is like to have NOTHING. Whatever life you are living…THAT IS WHAT YOU WERE BORN TO EXPERIENCE. Don’t like it? CHANGE it. Easy to say, difficult to do! Actually, to be honest, it isn’t difficult to change the conditions of your life but it is NEARLY impossible to change your MINDS about it! We THINK we are stuck with the life we are leading and so we are indeed stuck. Nothing is hard unless we make it hard. Being human, conditioned to believe as we do, we make everything HARD! We hear about rags-to-riches stories and we hear about miracles and we think…yeah, that won’t happen to me. And so it doesn’t. Goodness…I am sounding a bit like the people who wrote “The Secret” and how the “law of attraction” can work for you! But you know what? That particular law has worked for countless people! People who overcame the limitations of their minds to experience the change they WANTED. I am here to tell you this…I am struggling right along with you!

I think there is nothing more disappointing than to KNOW something and yet not put that knowledge to use! Example. I am a writer. I’ve wanted to write since I was eight years old. That’s when I wrote my very first story (which I still remember quite well!!). Since that first story, I’ve been OBSESSED with writing. There was a time when I couldn’t STAND seeing a blank paper or computer screen in front of me…I HAD to fill them with words, stories! I am CONSTANTLY making up stories in my head. This obsession tells me that I was BORN TO BE A WRITER! This I KNOW. Yet, and get this, I didn’t publish my first book until I was 48 years old! What?!!!! True story. AND I did it myself. Rejection letters from literary agents nearly destroyed my belief that being a writer was my life calling! Then along came Amazon with the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program and suddenly there was no obstacle left to achieving my dream. I do believe that Amazon’s self-publishing program was created to help all of us writers realize a dream. Great, wonderful. Now my dreams have changed a bit and I am looking for READERS! (sigh) Once we reach one goal, we immediately make another, one a bit more challenging than the last! That’s not a bad thing, we are SUPPOSED to be doing that, but golly gee, if only things could get easier once in a while! So here’s my point: I KNOW I was meant to be a writer and I am. I write. I have NINE published books. It matters not that I published them myself or with a small independent publisher. I have PHYSICAL books that I can hold and that were created by me! Yay! Hurrah! BUT (and here’s the kicker) now I want readers to read my books! Not just because I believe my books can help them in many ways but because I want to make a living from doing what I love (seriously, don’t we all?). I don’t expect nor want a lavish life, just a comfortable one where I’m not constantly struggling to pay bills! I’m not out to be greedy. I don’t want much…I just want to lead a comfortable life and I want to have the ability to help others when they need a little help. I KNOW this is possible. I KNOW that if I can just force my limited-thinking brain to accept that this is NOT unreasonable, then I will find all the readers I want for my books! And sometimes it’s even happened. And then for some reason, I put the brakes on the whole thing. Ugh! WHY do I do that?

As much as I believe my stories will help people in some way…by showing them how to connect with spirit and even deal with all the aspects of dealing with spirit…I start second-guessing my ability, my stories, my readers and so on and so on. I will get a five-star, glowing review for one of my books and will be over the moon about it and then I will get a scathing one-star review and go plummeting back to earth, crash landing into despair and muddling about there until another five-star review pulls me out of the mess. It’s exhausting and it’s annoying. I don’t know why I can’t get it through my head that my stories are worthy of being read. They MUST be or they wouldn’t be in existence. It’s that nasty little voice that sneaks into my mind telling me that there are lots of things in existence that seem to have no purpose that causes all the problems. THAT voice, my dear friends, is our EGO. We all were saddled with one…a requirement to enter the earth plane and experience physical existence. Our Ego tears us down, builds us up, determines what we believe, don’t believe, accept, don’t accept, love, hate…etc. It’s a big, big deal to learn how to live peacefully with our Ego. It keeps us grounded in disbelief or sends us flying into flights of fancy and sometimes, when we get it right, we live the life we want! If only I could figure out that last bit on a regular basis! (sigh)

So anyway, here we are. Living a life that some of us are happy with and some of us aren’t. For the most part I’m pretty happy with my life. BUT, I do wish my books were best sellers! (smile) I’m still working on making that dream a reality. I’m not sure why my Ego keeps putting the brakes on that particular dream. I guess it’s a life lesson I have not yet mastered (obviously). Not too long ago I had a Bookbub promotion for my book NO MATTER WHAT. The story is based on reincarnation…which I DO believe in by the way! I wanted to show HOW reincarnation works and how it affects our life and I wanted to show that through a story. That promotion led to over 19,000 ebook downloads! My book made it to the number ONE slot for “Free books” in the Kindle store. I was over the moon excited! Then the promotion was over and the downloads plummeted to just a few books and then down to even fewer books and here I am, back where I started, wondering if I will ever “make it” as a writer. So yeah, I get it about how hard it is to change the conditions of our life. The upside is this: I KNOW it will eventually change, I just have to figure out HOW to make the change. Once I figure it all out, I’ll let ya know how I did it!

So back to our loved ones in spirit. There are many “there” (I put that in parenthesis because being in spirit means to be in a different state of consciousness, a different dimension of experience and not a physical location far from us) that I love and miss. My grandparents are two of them…my Nana and Grampy. I adored them. I loved them with my whole heart and mind and soul. I still do! Their passing into spirit was the hardest, saddest periods of my life. I have other times like that ahead and I dread it. I don’t have any easier time dealing with loss than those who don’t believe they can connect with spirits. As many times as I’ve connected with my Nana and Grampy and many others, I still struggle with my feelings of missing them. Despite KNOWING they are fine and connecting with them many times, I want what we all want…their physical presence. I have to tell you, though, that I’ve had some amazing experiences and continue to get them. My grandparents come through for me all the time. I think about them so much that they enter my consciousness often and give me physical signs of their presence. It’s quite comforting and I love knowing they are around…but I still miss them in the physical sense.

What I am trying to convey in this post is this: No matter how limiting your mind (Ego, belief), you CAN connect with your loved ones in spirit and you CAN change the conditions of your life. You CAN. We all…each and every single one of us…have the ability to connect with spirit and live the life we want. It’s DOING it that’s the problem. You’d think connecting once would make it easier to connect again but it isn’t. Not if your Ego, belief, is creating a problem. Like for me with my books. You’d think making it to the NUMBER ONE slot on Amazon’s best seller list would make it easier to do it again and even stay there but no, that’s not the case. Something happens to make me doubt the situation (like a scathing review!) and sales plummet! As for connecting with spirit, I’ve done it enough that I don’t have many problems with it anymore. Not for myself anyway. I shy away from connecting with loved ones for others. Not because I don’t believe I can but because I worry that maybe I’m not bringing the message through properly. After all, communicating with spirit is not done the same way as we communicate with each other in the physical world. Spirit connects with us through our consciousness and they do it through EMOTION and that is conveyed symbolically. Learning the process takes lots of practice. I have it down pretty good with my Nana and Grampy but when it comes to other people, I get a little shy about it. Meaning my Ego gets in the way! Annoying.

With all the messages I get from grieving people pleading with me to help them connect with someone they have lost physically, I have this to say: You CAN connect with them and are doing it more often than you think! For example, those dreams you get about a loved one in spirit…quite REAL! BUT, let me caution you here…if you have a dream where they are suffering…that is not from them! That is your EGO getting in the way, making you think they are suffering. I promise you, your loved ones are NOT suffering! If you LOVED them, they are LOVED by GOD as well. Your love comes from the Divine Source. If YOU wouldn’t make them suffer, God sure as heck won’t either! I promise you. Now, as for people who do evil deeds…they will totally regret those deeds once they are back in their spiritual form and consciously connected with their soul. They will be very sad for what they did and they’ll be back (via reincarnation) to make amends. That’s how it works. Hard as that might be to accept, even people who do evil deeds have people who love them! They don’t love what they DID but they love the PERSON (their soul…which is pure).

I don’t want to ramble on too much more and make this post too long so I’m going to bring this to a close. In my next post…which I promise won’t take forever to be published…I will help you understand your connection to spirit and how you can recognize when your loved ones in spirit are with you! Until then, I send you loving light and peace, I wish for you to be showered in love and I pray you figure out how to live the life you WANT! More than anything, I wish for those who are suffering grief to feel some measure of peace in knowing their loved ones are NEAR and they are truly okay. More than okay. They are THRIVING with the life force of God. Blessings to all!! May your lives move ever Onward and upward!!

Well it’s been awhile since my last post…again! I never intend to let things go so long but then time flies by and suddenly I realize that I need to write another post or people might think I’ve joined the land of the spirits! (smile) The holiday season always keeps me busy thanks to my very large family so it’s what I offer for a poor excuse! Aside from that, I came down with shingles of all things! I don’t even like the word “shingles”! I mean, it sounds like a roofing problem. In any case, it’s very painful and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone … well, except for maybe those doing evil in the world…let them deal with this crap. But it doesn’t quite work that way does it? (sigh)

So anyway, I have also been working on my latest book, Haunting Ground, which is number 6 in the Tess Schafer-Medium series. It took me longer to write than I thought it would but my gosh, there was a LOT to deal with. It’s not surprising that I would come up with this story during the Christmas season (though the story takes place in April and has nothing to do with Christmas!). I’ve long known that it’s during this time of year more so than any other when many people get really depressed. While some are running around buying gifts and spending time with friends and family, others are missing those who have passed on into spirit. They are sad and alone. There’s no worse time to be missing someone than during the holidays. Although, in truth, there’s NEVER a good time to be missing anyone! But your “aloneness” seems more pronounced when everyone else is running around singing Christmas carols, wearing weird hats on their heads and watching sappy Christmas romances on the Hallmark channel!

I’ve received a lot of comments on this blog and most of them share a similar desire or concern…they are being frightened by ghosts or they want to contact someone they’ve lost. I will admit that my books are quite influenced by the many comments I get because they put me in a certain frame of mind while writing. When I decided to do Haunting Ground, my influence was the things my character Tess Schafer initially ran away from. She lost a husband and dog in book 1 Be Still, My Love and her grief over that loss cast her into depression. It even stalled her medium ability for awhile. I believe if our spirit is bogged down with grief and depression, those negative emotions are bound to inhibit spiritual abilities! So Tess gets away from her home in New York, goes to the coast of Maine…to a haunted resort of all places!…and finally begins to heal. Sometimes that’s what you need to do…get away from the place that keeps you sad and upset. Tess faced the memories of her husband and dog every day in her home. She couldn’t get a break from it and so the negative feelings continued. Getting away from that was the best thing she could have done and I believe that as well for real situations. If you are grieving over the loss of a loved one and yet are staying in the very place that is constantly reminding you of what you lost…how are you going to get yourself out of such a depression? How are you going to get over it, or get passed it? (not that you ever do completely) You CAN heal enough to move on with your life, but it will be HARD. Some people, of course, find comfort in being in the place where their lost loved one used to live. But the fact is, they are concentrating on the LOSS and thus, that keeps the grief fresh. Time DOES heal, but it takes time!

The Tess Schafer-Medium series has been quite a spiritual, paranormal journey for me. I try to incorporate into my stories the things that might help people deal with real paranormal issues. In Haunting Ground my character goes back to her old home town and finally meets up with the family of the man who killed her husband. It’s a fictional story, but I try to make it a believable one. Tess must confront her own feelings on the issue as well as those of the family still grieving. I think what motivated this story was the idea that no matter what we may believe about a situation…there’s always a story for the OTHER side as well. Tess was angry with Stuart Duncan for driving while under the influence of alcohol and subsequently killing her husband and dog. To her, there is NO EXCUSE for his part in that tragedy. BUT, sometimes, getting the REST of the story can help with the healing process. Why? Because knowing the whole picture helps deal with the small part of it that affects you! Tess has a lot to discover about that accident that killed her husband but in addition, she really does come to care for the family he left behind.

As Tess believes (and so do I), whenever something occurs that we label a “coincidence”, what we are really encountering is a situation that is part of an intricately woven divine plan. The world operates in perfect synchronicity and coincidences are proof of it! Whenever you start encountering a situation that makes you think “Wow, what a coincidence” then you can KNOW that you are on the right path! Whatever is to come, it will end up being for the BEST because God will not conduct the orchestration of life in any other way.

Losing a loved one is one of the worst of things we must deal with in life. The hole left behind cannot be filled. We can’t fill it with drugs or alcohol or wild behavior. We can’t fill it with someone else. In the end, those things will only make it worse. All we can do is learn to live with the hole and turn our focus onto things that don’t make us feel so sad. Of course we’ll never forget and neither should we, but we can at least accept what is gone and focus on what we still have. Besides, those who pass into spirit ARE NOT GONE! Living in a physical world, we want the physical body and only that can satisfy us…BUT, we can’t have that forever now can we? Not here anyway. In the afterlife certainly!

The situations Tess encounters in Haunting Ground are situations that happen a lot actually. People cross over into spirit and from there they must deal with how their loved ones are handling things back “here”. The worst part part for them to deal with is getting a message to us. Most of us ignore their subtle messages, writing them off as “weird” but unexplainable. Or we don’t believe what we suspect. People write in to me all the time saying they lost someone to spirit and now they are experiencing things that make them think that their loved one is trying to contact them. Those people are usually asking for verification on whether the spirit they sense is, in fact, the loved one they THINK it is! I say YES! If something unusual occurs and you think it’s a spirit and then you also believe the spirit is someone you know…it most likely is! That’s why they came to mind right away. Their soul connects with our soul and our soul then sends a thought to us that makes us think “I wonder if it’s gramma” (or whoever). Of course, then our ego kicks in and convinces us that it’s just wishful thinking or the imagination playing around with us. So what if it is those things? Wishful thinking is a DESIRE for something and when it includes another person, they get it…they KNOW you are thinking about them and they come. Always. Every time. No exception. As far as the imagination is concerned…how do you think we gain access into the spirit world? Our imagination is our way IN to spirit. Our wishful thinking about a loved one in spirit is our “call” to them.

I often find myself answering the many questions I get on this blog in pretty much the same way but there’s no other way to answer the questions that all share a common core. I don’t want this blog to be a long one because who has time to read long blogs? Not me. Though I WISH that I did! So anyway, I want to close it with this: If you are missing someone in spirit and something happens that makes you think of them right away…it’s them. They are with you. Take the time to enjoy their presence! It’s pretty amazing. I promise you! If you want to make contact with someone in spirit, THINK about them. FOCUS on them. IMAGINE you are talking to them! The thoughts popping into your head is not random stuff from the imagination…it’s your loved one USING YOUR IMAGINATION to talk to you!

Before I close out, I do want to say that in celebration of Haunting Ground‘s release on the 25th of January 2015 (you can pre-order it on Amazon by clicking on the book title), I am putting Be Still, My Love up for FREE for two days…the 25th and 26th of January. If you are curious about my books, here’s a way to check one out without it costing you anything! I do want to clarify though that the issues Tess struggles with throughout that book…they aren’t much of an issue in the ones following! And yes, Tess’s beliefs about God are interspersed throughout her stories. If I have to call her anything as far as religious thinking goes, I’d have to say she is most closely aligned with the Spiritualist faith (just so you know!)

To further celebrate, I am reducing the prices of book 2 Hidden Voices and book 3 Vanquishing Ghosts for two days. They will both drop to 99 cents on the 25th of January, then slowly creep back up to their full list price of 2.99 by 8 pm on the 26th of January. This way, if anyone is interested in checking out the series, seeing how the stories progress, they can do so with minimal investment!

So that’s it for this post. I need to get back to answering some of the many comments waiting for replies! I’m thinking that future posts will focus on some of the more common questions I get on this blog and addressing them. Since so many people often share the same concern, why not address those concerns all in one place? So, if you have something you want me to blog about, please leave a comment and let me know!

Like this:

I’ve been so busy lately that I don’t even know what day it is, let alone remember the date! Although I thought life would become more enjoyable than challenging as I moved up in age, the opposite seems to be happening! Then again, my family is a LOT bigger than it used to be and I’ve somehow taken on more responsibilities, so I guess I should have realized that things were not going to slow down or get easy…ever!

One thing I have going on is that I’m writing TWO new books! At first they were neck in neck…I’d work on one book for awhile and then go to the other and work on that one. I was on chapter five with both books when one of them just took off, and now I’m totally caught up in the story and can’t tear myself away from it long enough to work on the other one (which I totally do love by the way!!!). It’s just become too urgent!

The one going wild on me is book six of the Tess Schafer-Medium series. Today I thought of a title for it…Tortured Souls. Although Tess has her hands full dealing with real life issues, she’s also got things going on in the spirit world that need just as much of her time and attention. What strikes me about this is the fact that the book’s premise is probably more true than it is fictional! Fact is, just as we are caught up in our own drama of worry and concern, so can those in spirit!

Whether we are “here” in the physical world or “there” in the spirit world, we are just as focused in our needs and desires as ever! What I enjoy so much about my Tess Schafer-Medium series is that I feel like my character Tess and I are on this amazing spiritual journey together! The stories unfold in ways that are constantly surprising me. My characters feel as real to me as my “real life” peeps and I have to wonder sometimes…perhaps they do exist in an alternate reality! Yeah, that’s what my brain does on occasion…it goes “out there” in it’s meanderings.

So anyway, back to my busy life. My husband and I have decided to downsize our lives and live simpler…we really do work hard at complicating our lives, don’t we? I mean…we buy all these things that we later look at and wonder…what did I need this for. The truly sad part is where those things we thought we just HAD to have end up. They go to the “give away” pile or the “donation” pile or the garbage bin if I think no one will want it (and again I wonder why I ever did!). So anyway, we’ve been renovating our house in the hopes of making it more appealing to possible buyers and weeding through our things, packing away what isn’t necessary (which turns out to be an incredible amount of stuff!), and along with all that we are trying to keep up with the yard work…trimming, weeding, pruning, raking, mowing, etc… Yeah, busy times. Oh, and I’m also trying to write TWO books and deal with all the drama that comes from having a large family!

As I was working on a title for my newest “Tess” book (as I unofficially call the series), I thought about what my character is dealing with…people who are tortured by emotional pain and loss of loved ones (both in this life and the next) and I thought, she’s trying to help these poor tortured souls…and waalaaa…a title! But isn’t it the truth of the world? We deal with emotional pain and mental trauma all the dang time. There’s just always something going on. Life is hard. It really is. It often sucks. Can’t anything ever go RIGHT? But on the flip side…life can be pretty darn thrilling!

We’ve gone on a few camping trips over the summer and we’ve taken some of our grandchildren with us on a couple of them. We enjoyed that so much that it helped to put things back in a more positive perspective. The joys in our lives are no doubt our kids (though at times they can certainly be our “pain”!!) and our grandkids. We’ve also had some great times with friends (angels on earth!). In addition, like right now…the world is exploding with color as the Fall moves in for a short visit (here in Maine, nothing lasts long, especially not the seasons and most certainly not the weather!). Amid all the crap life deals out, there is also amazing beauty and joyful moments.

I know many people like to knock concepts like “The Secret” but you know, the fact is…we really do have the most influence over our own lives and how things play out. Where our FOCUS goes, our energy flows. If we FOCUS on the crap, all we see is crap. We find what we look for and when we are dealing with crap, we EXPECT more crap and so, of course, we LOOK for it! The opposite is true as well. When great things happen to us, it seems that MORE great things happen and life is grand…nothing can go wrong! Until it does. And there we are, right back to the crap, focusing on it, looking for it and ultimately finding it. There we languish through the muck of strife until something good happens and we are once again living the good life! It’s an endless cycle isn’t it?

So anyway, after doing all the work we’ve been doing on our house and around the yard (it sure is looking good around here!!), we learn that the housing market just isn’t going to support a sale of the sort we need. Not right now. Although I was initially disappointed, I have finally managed to stop the mental tirade that was not only bumming me out but giving me stress. I am now telling myself what I KNOW to be true…when things don’t go the way we hope, it’s because something BETTER is in store for us! In every instance where things didn’t SEEM to go right for me, they ended up being the best things to have happened!

The more we TRUST in the universe (which, of course, operates through God) to take good care of us, the faster things work out! Seriously, I don’t believe our purpose for existence is to live through crap. My belief on the matter is that one of our life tasks (for I am sure there are many!) is to figure out how to eliminate it. One way we can make that to happen is to change our FOCUS and trust in the fact that we are meant, truly meant, to experience Heaven on Earth. It’s not an easy task to accomplish. In fact, most of us might manage, at best, a few fleeting moments of joy. Even so, despite the difficulty in doing so, constant PEACE is achievable. I KNOW it. So, based on this knowledge, I’m trying my best to silence my Ego’s negativity and let the Universe (God) do its thing! Which can only be something wonderful because that’s what God is all about! Our poor tortured souls (of our own doing) are meant to be joyful and at peace. What a rough road our souls often travel in this journey through life!

As I head toward the finish in “Tortured Souls”, I wonder how my character and I are going to get there and it marvels me the way my life often parallels the story I’m writing. The truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction! Speaking of which…that movie Stranger Than Fiction really strikes a chord in me as a writer. I do feel like that sometimes…like my characters really exist in some alternate reality that I just happen to be channeling. In fact, I often feel like that’s what I’m doing when I write my books…I channel them. I’m just like a first-time reader when writing my stories, I’m as eager as they are to learn what’s going to happen next!

Okay, my meanderings are over. Now I’ll address those who are reading my Tess Schafer-Medium series….if you are interested in being informed when the next book is coming out and you are not following this blog (because I will announce it in a future blog post), then click on my contact page and give me your email. I’ll use it ONLY to send out information on what’s happening with my books or maybe appearances I’ll be engaging in…we (my husband and I) are hoping to go on a few road trips in the near future!! I won’t give your email to any lists or marketers and I won’t bother you with anything other than book/appearance updates. Also, because I did mention I was working on two books…I wanted to let you know that the other one is a romance (if I’m not reading paranormal stories then I’m reading romances!!). However, though it’s a romance, I did include a ghost (couldn’t resist!). It’s actually a spin-off from another book I wrote titled “Deceptive Hearts” which will be released around the same time! So, yeah, lots going on. Thank you God for inspiring the stories and giving me the ability to write them!!!

Many people write in to ask me about making contact with loved ones who have crossed into spirit and though I’ve written other posts about it, I thought I’d write another in the hopes that this one might offer what the others perhaps did not. But before I get into that, many of you might wonder how it is that I am an authority on the subject. Well here’s the best answer I can give: I’m not. BUT, I do make contact with the spirit world and I have wonderful experiences when doing so! It is those experiences that I share. Well, that and what spirit moves me to write! (the creation of anything…such as this blog post…is an interaction with spirit!). I am not a medium in the same way that the late Sylvia Brown was a medium, nor am I anything near as talented as the Long Island Medium, Theresa Caputo. Fact is, MOST people who connect with spirit are not mediums by trade. BUT, everyone has the ability to interact with the spirit world in some way. Problem is, there are many, many people who don’t believe it, are afraid to do it or would rather someone else do the contacting while they simply enjoy the communication as a third party. I know I say the following a lot but it can’t be said enough…we are spiritual beings living in a physical body and given that…we are directly connected to spirit…all the time, every second of every day (making the “we are one” thing a very true statement!).

When we move our consciousness from spirit to the physical world (by entering a physical body), our Ego will eventually take over our life somewhat by filtering our experiences. The Ego’s job is to keep us grounded in the physical world (otherwise, I don’t think we’d want to be here, not at all). But (there’s always a “but” isn’t there?), babies and young children haven’t yet developed their Egos so they have the unique experience of being more aware of the spirit world than those of us who are under our Ego’s influence.

Some of you may have noticed babies looking at apparently nothing and yet appear to be very fixated on something (animals do that too!). We adults can’t see what they see because the Ego has filtered it out. The babies, however, don’t have the Ego to contend with so they can see beyond the physical realm. Since we are speaking of this, I have to tell you about a recurring experience I had when I owned a small family campground. Over the course of time we came to the conclusion that angels hung out in the office area where people came to register for campsites. We arrived at this conclusion because it was quite often that we witnessed babies actively watching something with their eyes, their faces animated with pleasure as they babbled and smiled. They were always looking up toward the ceiling and there was never anything there that we could see. And yet, there had to be SOMETHING holding their delighted attention. The parents of these babies were struck with wonder and even some apprehension for they’d look up, see nothing, then stare at their child in bafflement. I was always quick to point out the fact that whatever they saw, it wasn’t threatening or anything to be concerned about. Since the babies always reacted joyfully, it can only mean positive spirit energy was affecting them and there can’t be anything wrong with that!

Another strange thing that many people experience is having their children remember a past life. My own son, in fact, used to talk about his “former” life as a man all the time. As a two and three year old, he shouldn’t have known any of the stuff he often talked about. He spoke of having a wife, being in an accident, dying, coming back and even shared his adventures as a pilot in the Korean war! These instances with my son helped reinforce the whole issue of reincarnation for me. I was already a believer, anyway, because as an adolescent on through my teenage years, I had dreams of being another person. These dreams were not strange or bizarre in any way, other than the fact it was ME but not me as I am now. Those dreams had an air of realism to them that made it hard to ignore once I was awake. In fact, upon waking, I often had a hard time reacquainting myself with my current life situation! I also had several prophetic dreams and went through many, many spirit interactions. All these experiences helped to form the beliefs I hold to this day. And that’s how it works with us, right? We learn from experience.

Despite my convictions on what it is I do and do not believe, it used to worry me what others thought, especially if they didn’t agree with me or believed the exact opposite. Thankfully, I’m secure enough in my own convictions that it doesn’t bother me what people think anymore. It just doesn’t matter. After all, I don’t go around trying to press my beliefs on others and just so long as they aren’t trying to do that to me either, then what does it matter? It doesn’t. The only time it matters what others think is when they use their beliefs to inflict harm on other people. I’m thinking of the radical extremists (of any religion or thought process!) that believe it’s okay to treat others with contempt, condemnation and cold-hearted carelessness. When people think they are better than those who are not of like mind, they have a LOT yet to learn! But that’s another intense topic that I don’t want to get into right now! The fact is, once we make up our minds about a belief and it becomes something that we KNOW, well, there’s no changing what IS. I mean (for instance), now that I KNOW the sky is blue, you can’t come along and convince me that it’s really pink. The only way I’d end up changing my mind on the matter is if I have a personal experience that showed me, first-hand, that the sky is indeed pink! (I’m thinking here about the fact that people used to believe the world was flat. No way would they believe otherwise until it was proven to be round!) So for the most part, our acquisition of knowledge comes from our first-hand experiences and we acquire that from our walk through life. Given that, no matter how detailed the telling of another’s walk, they are not MY experiences. What it all boils down to is the fact that we are all on a spiritual quest…a journey of the soul…and we all are taking that journey at our own pace, traveling this way and that, willy-nilly and yon.

I’ve written a previous blog post about this dream I’m about to share but it is such a profound dream that I feel I should share it again. Besides, when a dream sticks with you in absolute clarity after many, many years…well it’s an important dream. One to take heed of. Dreams like that stick around in the mind for a reason! So anyway…I dreamed I was in church. There were no pews, however. The seating area was like what you’d see in an amphitheater. The priest delivered this beautiful message about receiving spirit and how we are all one of God’s own then he invited us to come and share in the “body of Christ” (the Eucharist). Well I went to stood in this really, really long line of people. Needless to say, it was a slow moving line and a hard, arduous one at that! In fact, we had to climb over obstacles along the way. By the time I reached the priest I was soaked in sweat and panting with exhaustion. But by gosh I’d made it! I happily accepted the Eucharist, feeling like I really earned it, and went back to my seat where my companion was already sitting. After I was settled next to him (he was looking remarkably refreshed, I might add!) he asked me, “What took you so long?” and I waved my hand at the long line (which was STILL long by the way!). Then I asked him, “How did you get back here so fast?” and he says, “I just walked right on up to him and he gave me the Eucharist without delay. Why ever did you choose to go in that long line?” And I look and there’s space enough for another line but no one is in it. All I could think as I stared at that empty space was “Why in the world did I get in the other line then?”

I woke up from that dream and was at once struck by its message. In fact, thinking of it now, it puts me in mind of the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Every time we make a decision about something, it starts us down a new road. And each road has its own set of experiences. What I find most curious is the fact that many of us like to travel the same roads! The ones most traveled. The crowded, jam-packed, challenging ones. Why is it that we sometimes choose those that are beaten down or even destroyed? Despite the choices we make, the time it takes, the obstacles we need to overcome, in the end, we are all going to end up in the same place. Some of us are just going to get there faster (and more easily) than others! And honestly, there are some people in this world that I wonder if they will ever make it at all! But anyway…

My encounters with spirit have led me along the path in life that I now move through and though it’s brought me many setbacks, I’m quite happy to be right where I am! Which is at a point where I know it is possible to talk to those who have passed from physical life and are residing in spirit. The majority of us have encountered SOME SORT of spiritual interaction. Some more bizarre than others I’ll admit for some of the stories people have shared with me have totally baffled my mind! And when that happens, it makes me realize just how much we don’t know about “life” and “being in existence”. Which is why, for me anyway, the quest continues.

I have come to understand a few things and one of them is this: Our spiritual energy is REAL and it’s POWERFUL. I know NOTHING can overpower it unless we ALLOW it. We can connect to this spiritual energy through our imagination. In fact, the imagination is the doorway into the spiritual realm! When the mind is FOCUSED and PURPOSEFUL with INTENT, we can easily connect (become aware) of the “real world”. That being, of course, the SPIRITUAL REALM.

Just a few days ago I got together with three family members who had recently lost their mother (for two of them) and mother-in-law for the other. The lady who had crossed into spirit was my aunt and when she was physically with us, she LOVED talking to those on the “other side” via table tipping. We decided to try and contact her in the same way so all day long, up until my cousins arrived at my home, I thought about my aunt and sent out an invitation to the spirit world, asking loved ones who wanted to “talk” to us to please come and do so. Although these three women had never table tipped before and were nervous about doing so, that table started in the moment we put our hands on it! My dear aunt was quite, quite ready to operate that table and talk to us! We had a really meaningful experience and my cousins found some peace of mind. It’s very comforting to KNOW that those we love who have crossed into spirit are not GONE and forever lost to us. It’s also a huge relief to be able to ask the questions we needed answered but didn’t ask before they let go of their physical life.

So here’s the thing…I am no more special, or different or talented, gifted etc. than anyone else when it comes to spirit contact. What I am is OPEN to allowing it. What I am is ACCEPTING that it’s possible. The fact is, the spiritual realm shares the same space as we do. However, we are operating on different levels of consciousness (called “realms”, “planes” or “vibrations” by some others). Nothing ever severs the connection BUT it is possible to not be AWARE of the connection. Think of it this way…we all know that there are frequencies in the air that carry sound and when we use a device such as a radio or television, we can tune in to those frequencies. We KNOW the frequencies exist even though we can’t see or feel them. They surround us everywhere! The spirit world works on the same premise. So, given that, the table…in table tipping sessions…is one of the devices we can use to “tune in”. The spirit board (Ouija) is another device. As are Tarot cards though they are more for tapping into spiritual energy than spiritual beings. There are many, many ways to contact the “dead” and many devices to help us do so. Scrying is another way (for those who don’t know what that is, it is a method of connecting with spirit using a reflective surface). Trances, seances, runes, gems, dreams, signs and symbols…the list goes on! There are so many ways because as spiritual beings, we can use ANYTHING we feel we need to use in order to connect with spirit.

Here’s the truth though…you don’t need anything to connect with loved ones on “the other side”. You just need YOU! Setting the mind (the ever vigil EGO) at rest and allowing the connection to occur is all you need to do. And YES, it’s quite HARD to do that for many of us! It helps to focus without distractions so you need to quiet things down and get relaxed, comfortable, before trying to communicate with spirit. Also, it helps to FOCUS on the person you hope to connect with. Picture the person you hope to communicate with in your mind’s eye and then wait in quiet expectation for the interaction to occur. The spirit world operates through EMOTION. There are no words in spirit and no need for them. Words are for the HUMAN experience. In spirit, you will emotionally connect and you will totally understand the connection though not a single word will pass between you! But, if it’s easier for you to converse with words…then allow the conversation to flow between you. It will strike you as “made up” and “unreal” but SOMETHING is inspiring the words, right? When you FOCUS on speaking to someone in spirit and CONCENTRATE with INTENTION on connecting, then the conversation that follows…when done while in deep, peaceful concentration…is a very REAL conversation! One way to measure it’s TRUTH is in how you FEEL. Spirit interaction should ALWAYS be LOVING and PEACEFUL! If you do not feel those two emotions, then it’s your EGO playing it’s silly, HUMAN TRICKERY on you! The personalities we become in physical life are totally capable of trickery but LOVING, SPIRIT entities are NOT. They will not induce fear or anxiety or depression or anything involving negative energy. They just won’t. Ever. Period. So if you feel any of those things…the EGO is involved or a negative entity has come to stir trouble and you should END the contact. You control this world of yours. Not them…not anyone else either. Just YOU. So if you get a negative entity…you tell it to leave and you stop the contact.

The best way to protect yourself from negative energy is by imagining yourself full of light. Just picture your body lit up like a bright, bright light bulb! By focusing on your spiritual light, you supercharge it (though really, it’s ALWAYS super charged but this way you KNOW it and FEEL it!). Negative energy cannot enter positive energy zones. It’s totally impossible. So, when you see negative energy occurring…surround it with light. Fill and surround yourself with light and ask the loving angel entities that are all around you at all times to help you out. They are very good about lending assistance when asked!!

In the stories that I write…especially my Tess Schafer-Medium series, I try to share through story telling, how to communicate and deal with the spirit world. The good and the bad. I understand that it’s because of evil that people are afraid of the spirit world and since it is possible that we might have to deal with it, KNOW this much…it CAN be dealt with. We are not powerless against it. This is why I have my characters go up against some real negative spirit energies! I want to show, through my stories, that evil cannot cause harm if we actively resist it and use our spiritual energy to combat it. In all my books, the good is always going to win but that doesn’t mean the bad is gone or defeated. As long as there is energy (and since it can’t be destroyed, I guess that’s means forever!) there is going to be positive and negative polarities going on.

Every experience you have is a spiritual experience. Even when it seems that it’s a physical one. Just remember that! If you have someone in spirit you want to talk to…then talk to them! They will “hear” you. Every time. Always. And when someone who is now in spirit suddenly pops into your mind, guess what? They are thinking about you too!! (smile)

Okay, I better stop or I’ll go on forever! Sending out blessings to all and Peace Out!

Since starting this blog, which mostly features posts geared toward the strange and unusual world of the paranormal…I’ve heard from people all over the world. They have shared with me and my blog readers stories of their struggles, concerns, worries and the like. I do believe that when we are dealing with negative stuff…we focus on the negative stuff (because, after all, that is what is going on and of course we are going to focus on it!) and then MORE negative crap happens (where your focus goes, so your energy flows!)

Same with ghost/spirit trouble. You have a problem with one ghost and suddenly they are everywhere! You have family problems and suddenly everyone is upset! You have money trouble and suddenly you are burdened with financial woes! One thing breaks down and suddenly everything is going kaput on you! On and on it goes.

Never are the ups and down of life so apparent as they seem to be than during the Christmas season. It’s a great holiday, representing something quite fantastic, but it’s also a depressing time of year for many. People start thinking about loved ones lost to spirit and miss their physical presence, those who can’t afford gifts for their loved ones feel the crush of disappointment over it pressing down on them, those that go through life on their own feel even more lonely when they see all the “togetherness” going on around them. It’s a great time of year and it’s the worst time of year. BUT, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. No.

To get the Christmas “spirit” flowing…you start spreading some of it! The more you spread, the more comes back to you! It does work like that (and as easily as that!) but it’s hard to get going if things are that bad. When things are going rough for me, I think back to one of the darkest periods of my life (nothing ever has gotten as bad as that ever since! Besides, the story that follows explains why I keep thinking about it).

I was going through a terrible marital breakup and for awhile I thought there was NOTHING good going on in my life. Other than the blessing of my three kids, life totally sucked. My job was a challenge because I’d switched to an area that resented my presence (I was in the military at the time and we were combining two different career fields into one…of course both career fields resented the other! I was moved to the new section and needless to say, they didn’t think I belonged there!), my boss (supervisor) was an ass…no other way to put it! He had ZERO sympathy for the heartbreaking anguish going on in my personal life. His cold responses to my emotional pain made things that much worse! My husband at the time thought a girl half his age was THE THING and though I managed to get him away from her (while offering her condolences by the way…I thought he was as deceitful to her as he was to me!), he soon found another to take her place! My kids were upset to be losing their daddy and so I had their tears to deal with as well as my own! My finances were a MESS and … as I said, my heart broke. With Christmas rapidly approaching, things just seemed to be getting worse. How was I going to buy gifts for the kids? How was I supposed to show any happiness when I felt NONE? How was I supposed to FEED the kids, let alone find them Christmas presents?

Well, despite all my worry and misery, I prayed. And God heard (as ALWAYS!). Honestly, folks, there is POWER in PRAYER! Although I hadn’t been to church in many years, a couple that lived nearby and were good friends (he and I worked together in the military), convinced me to go to church with them. Although I’d been resisting their invitations for quite some time, one Sunday morning I was tired of moping around the house feeling sorry for myself so I called and said, “Okay. I’ll go to church with you!” Now what do you suppose the church was featuring on that day…my first time going? A six-part series on the LAW OF MONEY. I must reiterate here that my financial situation was quite bad! My kids and I were eating a lot of Ramen noodles, mac and cheese and fluffernutter sandwiches. I kept getting overdraft charges in my checking account and I barely had enough gas in the car to get to work…let alone make a trip to church! But I dressed up the kids and off to church we went. The kids thought it was a treat to get out of the house and I have to admit…I felt the same.

So, the preacher announces that he is going to be doing a six part series on the Law of Money and that it was important none of us missed the next five weeks. Interestingly enough, the church was undergoing some major renovations at the time so it might have been what prompted the “money” series but I don’t care. I felt it was God talking to me…that it was God that led me to church on that particular day and so I listened.

The first law was to give your concerns to God. Tell him what you need (though he already knows!). And to be clear here, I don’t particularly like calling God a “he” but it makes it easier to reference “him” as such so pardon the pronoun reference! So anyway, by clarifying our needs to God, we also are clarifying them to ourselves. There’s a difference between “needs” and “wants” and God WILL provide the “needs”. You have to go after the “wants” (actively seek them to achieve them). So I sat there in my pew and silently told God…”I need some money to pay my bills, buy some groceries (something besides Ramen noodles would be nice) and put gas in my car! Oh, and I need clothes for the girls because they are growing out of everything I have (they were 3 and 4 at the time) and all three of my kids need shoes!” (I took them to church in flip flops and torn sneakers!)

When it came time for the “offering”, I stared long and hard at my checkbook…which was quite pitifully low in the funds department and payday still over a week away! The preacher continued his sermon while the offering plate was passed around. “The more you give,” he says, “the more will come back to you. But give for the RIGHT reasons. Give not because you hope to receive but give because you want to help others! God will provide.” So I took that leap of faith and wrote out a check for over half the balance of my checking account! I no sooner put that check in the plate and my heart was pounding with worry! What had I just done!? Please, God, keep those needs of mine in mind over the next week or so!

As it happened, I had an appointment with a credit counseling agency the very next day. They had approved me for their program and I was meeting with them to set up their financial plan for me. BUT, when reviewing my finance sheet, they started telling me what things to cut from my costs and church donations was one of them! “God,” they said, “will understand that he can’t get a cut right now.” I told the counselor (who meant well, but obviously was quite unenlightened!) that I couldn’t do that. He then told me that I had to follow all of their plan or not be in the program. I politely declined the program and walked out of his office (much to his disbelief!). My heart was pounding because I was placing all my trust in God and though I had doubts that ALL my needs would be met (we are a very “doubting” sort of people aren’t we?), the fact is I was taking actions that showed my willingness to believe that God would provide. So, it’s okay to DOUBT…just so long as you don’t let that stop your actions of faith.

So anyway. I go home and I pour over my checkbook and there’s no money. I start crying silently, feeling sorry for myself as usual and worried about the fact that I was worried (after all, wasn’t I supposed to be trusting God?). When my son comes in and sees what’s happening, he asks what’s wrong and I tell him I’m just sad and that there is nothing for him to worry about (he was 10 at the time). So my son runs across the street to a neighbor and he tells her that his mom is crying. Over comes my dear friend Sylvia to check out the situation. I tell her that I was hoping to find some money to buy a few groceries but it seems that I am in the hole (which meant that I had written a bad check to the church!!!).

So my dear friend Sylvia sits down with me and we pour over all my bank statements (I don’t throw anything away!) and we examine my account from the last time I KNEW for certain it was balanced (which was almost a year ago!!). Another lesson learned…ALWAYS balance your checkbook on a MONTHLY basis…if not more so! And what do you suppose we discover? I made two payments on my car the previous month and there was a subtraction error as well (to my favor!). I call the car dealership handling my car loan and they say that I did indeed make two payments so I can skip this month’s payment since I’d already paid it! (honestly, I don’t know HOW I did such a thing but I’m not going to question it!). Suddenly I went from a negative balance to just over $300. That was a windfall to me.

Over the next few weeks it seemed that money just kept coming to me. A gift from my parents (for Christmas…thank God for great parents!!), a large unexpected child support payment (I didn’t see much in the way of child support assistance and since he was way behind and came into a bit of money, the state sent some of what he owed to me!!), an overpayment on some other bill from YEARS before! (Honestly! The agency…can’t remember who now…was “reviewing” my account and noticed a mistake on their behalf which resulted in me getting a refund!). On and on it went! Friends and neighbors were suddenly offering me clothes for my kids (without my asking for them or even indicating that we were in need of such things!). My dear friend Sylvia got a “buy one get one free” deal on shoes and since she had three kids that needed shoes, she got the free ones for my kids! The church gave us a food basket to enjoy for Christmas and the military also gifted us with help for the holiday!! Help was coming from everywhere!! God does indeed provide…TENFOLD!!!!!

We ended up having a decent Christmas. The kids were happy and their happiness helped heal my cracked heart. Besides, all the positive energy was really lifting my spirits and I soon came to the realization that the ending of a bad marriage is actually a GOOD thing! “They” say that when a door closes another will open and that is so true. The end of one thing just makes way for the beginning of something else (something BETTER). This is why I love the number “13”. In numerology it is considered a number of rebirth, renewal, reincarnation and the like. Basically, the number 13 marks the end of something and the beginning of another! People focus on the “ending of something” part and so think of that awesome number as bad. But I focus on the “beginning of something” part and so look at it as a positive number!

My life has gone nowhere but up since that dark period of my life. I have the BEST husband ever now. He’s been and continues to be one of the best things to ever happen to us! Money has been plentiful. I’m not rich but my NEEDS are all met and that’s huge in keeping the weight of burden off my back! Looking back…as bad as it all got and as awful as it all was…I’d go through it all again…exactly that way in order to get where I am right now!

One other thing to keep in mind as we go through the Christmas season…angels are with each and every one of us! We are never alone and they are ready and willing to help in however we need! From providing parking spots to finding things to alleviating negative situations…angels wait for our request to help! The thing about angels is you have to ASK for their assistance. They can’t just step in and do their thing without our permission. So keep them in mind and they’ll return the favor ten-fold!

To keep the spirit flowing…do you have a story to share? Has God come through for you in times of need? The angels? Let us know!!!

Wishing you ALL positive energy, many blessings and joy through Thanksgiving and on through Christmas!!!! PEACE OUT!

I love ghost stories and spooky movies so of course I had to go see The Conjuring. I read the book House of Darkness House of Light by Andrea Perron and though I wasn’t crazy over the writing style, I did enjoy the basic story and by this I mean the parts that actually involved the ghostly encounters. I thought there was a lot of stuff added into the book that didn’t need to be there…needless fluff…so I ended up skimming through a lot of it. But that is just the writer in me being overly critical I think. Then again, we all do it…criticize and skim or enjoy and savor! Since I am not into the literary, flowery sort of writing that Andrea used, I did not read volume two of this book series.

So anyway. The book “House of Darkness House of Light” was written by Andrea, one of the children of the family depicted in the movie, and it told a vastly different story than the one Hollywood presented (which was actually based on the Warren’s accounting of the haunting and not Andrea’s. The Warrens, by the way, were paranormal investigators and pretty big in their day!). I know Hollywood has to go over-the-top to hit it big in the box office, but it still disappoints me when they take the “nasty demon possesses body and goes on a killing spree” route. For me, the demon possession stuff ruined the movie though many others thought it added quite the thrill. My favorite parts were the beginning of the film. Although (here’s the critic in me again!) I thought it was rather slow at times and wished it would just get going already. Still, the subtle stuff that happens in real hauntings and then becomes more than subtle, that’s the stuff that grabs my attention and makes my imagination go haywire.

I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but since I’ve already mentioned the fact that a demon possession was involved, I just want to say that Andrea does not make her poor mother out to be as bad as all that in her book. Certainly she had problems and was quite influenced by the negative entity, but she did not try to kill her children. And really, if demons could do that sort of thing, don’t you think we’d hear about it? Have you ever heard of a demon taking over someone’s body and killing people anywhere but in the movies? Really, I want to know. Have you?

The problem with movies like “The Conjuring” is that it gives the paranormal world such a bad rap. Seriously, most of the spirits that make their way back into our realm of existence are not evil doers out to possess bodies. Many of them are just looking to make contact with loved ones they left behind. They want to reassure their grieving family and friends that they are in fact, quite fine. Better than fine. Awesome really! They want to offer comfort and hope and share the good news that the whole death thing is nothing to mourn over. I do have to add here, though, that there are some spirits who harbor negative feelings and though they can certainly INFLUENCE those they come near, to actually take possession of someone is not something they are looking to do. It does happen, however, on the rare occasion. Case histories exist concerning exorcisms that have really happened. But as I said, they are RARE and I think there are special circumstances about those cases.

I get a lot of comments on this blog…especially my post “12 Signs a Ghost is Near”… and I find that movies like “The Conjuring” concern many people that something like that could happen to them! After all, the movie states that it is based on a TRUE story! Key word here is “BASED”, meaning Hollywood can take creative license and do whatever they want with the ACTUAL story! The problem with this is that people don’t know what parts are actually true and so believe the possibility exists that ALL of it is true! That leads to instant fear when they suddenly have their own ghostly encounter. Even if they suspect the ghost is their loving gramma! The worry is that the haunting is going to graduate from gramma to an evil demon out to possess them! It’s too bad, really, because there is NOTHING more special than reconnecting with a loved one who has passed into spirit! It is one of the most PROFOUND experiences you can have in this physical life.

I often see a bluish light. I can see it with my eyes open but I see it more vividly when my eyes are closed. When I first started seeing it (early twenties), I wondered what it was but, for whatever reason, was too afraid to find out. It took me about ten years to finally get brave enough to allow the answer to come to me. Certainly I had asked mediums, shamans and anyone else who wanted to voice an opinion but I didn’t try to seek an answer myself. Until one night while I was mediating and trying to make contact with my spirit guide…who incidentally has the same name as my character’s spirit guide in the Tess Schafer-Medium series (Sheila!)…and I saw the blue light. I decided to stop being wary of it and sent out the message that I was ready to welcome it into my personal space. I didn’t force it to come closer (it always appeared to be just out of reach) and I didn’t try to mentally go after it. I simply waited. Suddenly the most overwhelming sense of LOVE just rushed over me, through me, around me – everywhere! It was my Nana. Gone to spirit for over twenty years, we had a LOT of catching up to do, and we did it all within minutes and without words. The spirit world is not limited to our mode of communicating through language. They communicate through feelings and it’s completely understandable, their message CLEAR! More so than words can ever convey. Honestly, once you label something with words then it must stay within the confines of those words and what you PERCEIVE them to mean. But when operating through FEELINGS, labels don’t have any role to play.

I now understand that the blue light is the energy field of a spirit! I was told once by an Indian shaman that spirits surrounded me. At the time the idea of it scared me to death! I was like “Do they watch me when I’m in the bathroom?”, do they watch me during other intimate moments that I don’t want to talk about in this blog? (smile) The idea of it did not sit well with me at all.

I’ve come to understand a lot about the spirit world over the years, through my contact with Sheila, other people, books, movies (not to mention some of the most profound dreams!) and I’m now understanding it that the spirit world doesn’t “see” us as we see with our physical eyes. They “see” us by our energy imprint and emotional body. So they don’t actually see our bodies while taking a shower (phew!). They sense our spirit, our energy field, much like we sense them when they are around.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “I just KNEW someone was near…that I wasn’t alone, I could feel them!” Of course we sense when spirits are around. At the very basic level, we are beings of energy. All energy affects any nearby energy and when you get close enough – zap! You really make contact! I’m no scientist and I don’t know much about how everything works, but I have a basic understanding on things that interest me (such as spirits, the spirit world and paranormal phenomena!) and I have my own thoughts and ideas concerning them (and where do you suppose ideas come from? Spirit!). My take on orbs for instance (small, light colored globes that often show up in photographs) is that they are the heart of a spiritual being – the center of their energy field. Camera’s send out this quick pulse of energy to capture a picture and the reaction that takes place when that energy pulse meets a spirit energy is the development of orbs in photos. It makes perfect sense to me in any case! So-called “experts” can argue the case against orbs all they want. I know for a fact that spirit beings (ghosts) do exist, and their energy is sometimes captured on film as orbs or other strange anomalies.

I think the whole Star Wars saga really captured my interest because I do believe that there is a “force” that exists and that we all can harness it and become like the Jedi Knights, if we only knew how! Honestly, Yoda knew exactly what he was talking about! The Matrix was another movie to grab my attention because of its portrayal of the world being nothing more than an illusion. I think that movie has hit on the truth of the matter – our life is nothing more than a grand illusion! Unfortunately, that movie’s idea of “reality” totally sucked! How dreary their “real” world was! But when they plugged into the matrix, well, that offered endless possibilities! And it was THAT part of the movie that I loved most, for it’s sort of like how we are – spiritual beings “plugged” into the physical world! Given that, then everything we experience is completely under the control of our imagination! Unlike the movie, however, when we “unplug” from it (die) and our consciousness is refocused into the spirit world – well, it isn’t dreary at all, it is in fact quite an amazing, awesome, mind-boggling place!! So what the heck are we doing here anyway? Gotta be a reason why we “plugged” into this world and then proceeded to make mayhem! (sigh) You know, my belief is that we truly are suppose to figure out how to make heaven on earth. Instead, we seem to be masters at creating havoc and chaos! (another huge sigh).

So back to ghosts and all that. I think it should be a NORMAL part of our life to include the PARAnormal. Contacting our loved ones and continuing our relationship with them should be part of our life, no question! Oh, I imagine they have things to do “over there” but they aren’t limited by time and space as we are so it doesn’t hinder their spiritual process at all. They “hear” our call when we think about them and then here they are! But what do we often do? Continue to miss them. And yet, they are right THERE with us. Sometimes we even feel them but then consider it nothing more than our imagination and so dismiss it. Damned straight. It is our imagination, our world of imagery within our spiritual “mind”, where everything truly exists! For real.

So anyway, I tell people who write in and worry about their ghosts becoming evil and trying to possess them (like all the movies and horror books like to depict) is no, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. One other thing I’ve learned over time is that WE CONTROL OUR OWN ENERGY FIELD! Have you ever seen the film or read the book The Celestine Prophecy? This movie explains the concept of personal energy fields (auras) quite well! Nothing and no one can overwhelm us and take control unless we do nothing to prevent it. Drugs, alcohol, mental and physical illness can weaken our defense certainly. BUT, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn to regain control! Exorcism is about good, positive energy forcing out the lower vibrational energy of negative spirits. The one thing that can block positive energy is NEGATIVE THOUGHTS and NEGATIVE BELIEFS! That’s it. Conquer that and the world…as they say…is your oyster.

To conclude. Ghosts exist and they are in fact EVERYWHERE. They don’t just hang out in old houses where someone died or spots where someone was murdered. We notice it more in those places because of the energy imprint left behind by those incidents. Energy, as you probably know, canNOT be destroyed. So, when our emotions flare up like happens during trauma, the energy bursts created during the incident are blasted out and become stored within the denser energy masses nearby…houses and other physical objects. Thus, when entering a house or touching an object that contains the stored energy of emotional trauma, we often can feel it. That’s because our spiritual body (which is a form of energy) is reacting to the energy stored within! This is why those places are easier for us to encounter paranormal phenomena. The energy there is high and our expectations of spirit activity draws the spirits to us! But the fact is spirits are all over the place. They truly are looking for someone to notice them just like Patrick Swayze’s character in the movie Ghost! In fact, since Halloween is fast approaching, the custom of donning costumes was started when people sought to disguise themselves from the spirits they knew were out enforce on Halloween night (the one night of the year when the veil between life and death is at it’s thinnest!). Like Hollywood likes to portray, some believed the spirits out roaming around on that night were out to possess their body so by making themselves look like anything but themselves, they hoped the spirits would pass them on by!

It was my own disappointment with what was available for ghost stories that I started writing them myself. Also, I wanted to share, through story telling, some of the wonderful things I’ve learned about spirit over the years! My beliefs are varied and touch on several religious schools of thought. I have to tell you though, in my honest opinion, there isn’t any ONE religion that has it ALL right. It’s like the truth of the matter is spread throughout every one of them! The reason EVERYONE doesn’t agree on EVERYTHING is because we are all at varying degrees of spiritual discovery and our knowledge is based on what we’ve learned SO FAR.

I really wanted to explore my beliefs in my book Be Still, My Love by having a medium go through tragedy. I wanted to show through storytelling that nothing is final and that there is always hope of finding happiness…no matter what! Then through Hidden Voices I wanted to explore a supernatural mystery that has plagued my hometown for centuries but also explore my character’s growing mediumship abilities. The third book Vanquishing Ghosts was written to show that no matter how bad the ghost, WE are in control not THEM, and vanquishing them CAN be done! The next book in the series “Rosemary’s Ghosts” (to be released in early October!) is more focused on the psychological aspects of hauntings and the conceptions many of us have about heaven and hell. I do, after all, have my own thoughts about that as well! All of these books share beliefs that I have come to accept and beliefs I am still exploring. I find myself learning things right along with my main character Tess! Honestly, all those books pretty much wrote themselves. I literally sat down at the keyboard and obediently started typing. I had no clear idea of how the story was going to pan out and end until it actually panned out and ended! And yet they all fit into each other so well. I love how it all works like that. It truly fascinates me. But then, I honestly believe that “spirit” is lending a hand!

Okay, I think I’ve rambled on enough for this post! Have you seen “The Conjuring”? What did you think of it? What do you think about any of the points I bring up? Really, there’s nothing more satisfying than people sharing ideas! It gets the “spirit” flowing! (smile)

By the way, there is one book I’ve read that depicts a “True Haunting” (it also is the title for the book!). It really is much more realistic about what a typical haunting is all about! It’s a quick easy read and if ghosts interest you, you’ll probably find this one rather interesting! Just don’t expect “over the top” craziness like the Hollywood movies go for.

I started this blog over a year ago because I wanted to share my paranormal experiences and connect with others of like mind. I have certainly done that! One thing I have learned quite quickly was that everyone…the world over…experiences the paranormal and are often left as I have been…curious, frightened and hoping for more answers. Many comments I get are from people who have experienced something that they don’t understand…they want answers and validation that they are not crazy. Oh how I know the feeling!

I often suggest that those needing a little more help than I can offer, should visit a Spiritualist Church. I learned about Spiritualist churches from a camper who came to stay at the campground I use to own and operate (a military retirement venture that was given up after three years of financial struggle and exhaustive work!). I knew about Temple Heights, of course, which is a Spiritualist Camp in Northport, Maine (not far from where I live) but I didn’t realize they were part of a church organization. Temple Heights is the place to go if you want to consult with a medium and I have visited them a few times … with great success. In fact, my mother was told during a “circle” we attended that she needed to take care of something going on in her stomach. At the time my mother wasn’t experiencing any problems there and so she didn’t think much of it. But when she later noticed a problem, she wanted it checked out right away because of what the medium told her. Turned out to be ovarian cancer, Stage 1, which is nearly unheard of to catch it that quick! Most of the time this fast-acting cancer is in its later stages by the time its discovered. A great success story that!

So anyway, I obviously missed all the literature about Temple Heights or I would have seen that it was part of the Spiritualist Church! So, I find out from this camper that there is a church (not a camp) in Augusta (Maine’s capitol city and quite close to where I live!). I went on line to check it out and yet it took me several months more before I finally decided to try one of their services. That was two years ago and I’ve been going ever since. In fact, I’ve become an official member! This church best suits my beliefs and I fit right in. Another feature I love about the church is their Thursday night “circles”. Now … about the circles. It is called that because we often sit in a circle when gathering together. At Temple Heights, circles are what they call sessions where a medium connects with spirit and passes on messages. They like to keep the circles small so everyone gets a message. The Thursday night circles at church cover different subjects every week. Church services as well as Thursday night circles always begin with prayer and meditation.

I often recommend that people needing help with spiritual matters should try to attend one of these church services because so many mediums attend them and often the kind of help they need is the kind of help a medium can give. The pastors for these churches are also mediums. They must all go through a certification process to prove their ability. Basically, whenever one of their mediums makes recognizable contact with a spirit, the person for whom they are reading is encouraged to fill out a testimonial saying so and that is sent to church officials who decide if it meets their strict guidelines for “proof” of spirit contact. I know this much…every medium that has given me a message has been right on, especially the pastor of the Augusta church!

The first time I attended, I wasn’t sure what to expect (by the way, the picture on the top left is from the old church building that was recently destroyed. It was on display right above the alter area and I loved looking at it during services). I thought I might feel a little out of place and awkward. But no. I did not. I was warmly welcomed at the door and then when we went through a guided meditation for the “healing portion” of the three-part service, I immediately relaxed into the calming atmosphere. The church believes that the power of healing comes from spirit (God, Infinite Intelligence!) and they offer the opportunity for healers (those who are particularly attuned to spirit and offering themselves as a conduit between spirit and the person needing healing) to pray over you. Church healers go through the same certification process as the mediums! I tell you, the benefits of this healing portion of the service can be felt right from your seat … without the added benefit of sitting in the healing chairs! The energy is that high in their services. The next part of the service involves a “message”. They prefer to call it that rather than a “sermon” for they don’t “preach” to you … they impart messages they feel moved to share. Those sharing the message of the day are also the mediums who will be conducting messages from spirit during the last portion of the service. Visiting mediums from other churches often come to share their talents and so we get to meet many wonderful people from all over!

The first time I attended church I received a message from my uncle who passed to spirit when I was fourteen. I loved him dearly and was very close to him and his passing was very hard for me. He was only 29 years young. The pastor was the one passing on the message and he got everything right. He described my uncle perfectly. He knew how and when he died, he knew that he smoked a pipe and was left handed. I was floored by this. Although I had been to many mediums before this point, none of them were as accurate or brought through someone from the other side that I quickly, easily and without mistake recognized! I KNEW my uncle was in that church with me and it was quite an emotional experience. The next visit my grandmother came through. He knew so much about her that was specific to only my nana that I knew once again that he truly was in contact with her. I have received many wonderful messages from loved ones during church services and I am so very grateful for it.

Spiritualist believe not only that life goes on after death but that we should be in contact with those in spirit as well. Thus, all the mediums to be found at their services! They believe in Jesus as well so in that respect, they are also Christian. But their doctrine is quite different from most Christian churches … mainly their focus on keeping communications open between our world and the spirit world. They don’t pass judgment on things like the Tarot cards, palm reading and the like. They welcome everyone and don’t consider gays to be a sinful lot. They accept without question those who are in same-sex marriages. They just don’t pass judgment on those things. Now, I know some of these things are very controversial but it is all a matter of faith and belief and this is a very accepting church! Their number one, golden rule? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Spiritualists are a unique group of people and I enjoy their company and their acceptance of everyone. They do not in any way condemn other churches. All are welcome to attend their services and there is no attempts to change their faith or their beliefs. There is no … believe-this-or-else kind of policy.

Several years ago I had a beloved great-uncle Norman who lost his wife, my dear aunt Tine, after 65 years of marriage! Imagine that … sixty five years! They had known each other most all their entire lives. They didn’t have any children so they went through life only with each other. When Tine died, my uncle Norman was devastated and he wanted to follow her into the afterlife. But one day some church folks knocked on his door and they saw he was quite aged, living alone and in grief. They wouldn’t leave him alone and visited him regularly. At first he enjoyed their sympathy and their company. BUT (there is always a “but” isn’t there?), they convinced him that he needed to be baptized or he was going to go to hell. That scared him for aunt Tine wasn’t baptized either and he became very worried for her soul. Especially so when they told him that since she didn’t attend church either, she really needed his prayers! Now, my aunt Tine was one of the sweetest ladies ever. She was kind to everyone and she was very loved. No freaking way would God send someone like her straight on to hell because she didn’t get baptized or go to church. But my uncle Norm was frightened by these people who told him otherwise. He wrote to me his fear of dying and his fear that his wife might be in hell. Since he was too sick to attend his scheduled baptism at church, he told me he was scared because he didn’t want to die and go to hell. Also, he wasn’t sure he had prayed enough to save his beloved Tine from that horrible fate as well. I wrote to him and I told him that so many people loved him, everyone that knew him in fact, and that he was the BEST of men. He lived a good life and God loved him way more than I did or anyone else for that matter. I told him that God loved aunt Tine more than he loved her. Would he send her to hell? NO! Well, God was much more loving and forgiving than him so why would he do something like that? “Go in peace, Uncle Norm. Go be with Tine and know that you will be happy and loved and in a beautiful place together.” I told him he had nothing at all to fear and he died the day after receiving my letter. I do not doubt for a second …in fact, I KNOW my uncle Norm and aunt Tine are together in glory with God. A Spiritualist Church would never have done that to a person. Never.

We are a race of judges. It is part of our nature to judge all things and these judgments are driven by our Egos. Most everyone passes judgments on everyone else and tries to use their bible of choice as their authority to do so. Well, I don’t buy into it. I use my own moral compass (my conscience, my soul) to determine what I think is right or wrong. I understand that others are not going to agree with me on every issue and so be it. That’s fine. We must all live our own life as we see fit. Every one of us have the right to our beliefs. One of my beliefs is that others’ beliefs should bring NO harm to anyone. All of life should be respected and treated justly. That’s not to say that evil doers should be left alone to do as they believe and conduct their evil. But that’s another whole discussion we won’t get into!

Now, I will be vocal as anyone else on passing judgments concering sins that we ALL can usually agree on … murder and stealing for example. But even in that we have disputes. Is capitol punishment murder? Is abortion murder? Is military operations that result in deaths murder? See? It’s all a matter of belief. Nothing is cut and dried. Not for me. It is for many others, though, and there’s nothing I can do about that. I am responsible for my SELF … for me. You are responsible for you. You make your choices and I make mine and if we must stand before some sort of spiritual judge someday … well, then I guess we’ll learn who was right and who was wrong then won’t we? Until that possible day, so long as I am not hindering your life in any way and causing you harm, I see no problem with me carrying on as I do.

But, back to the Spiritualist Church. They have camps … such as the one I mentioned earlier, Temple Heights, all over the country. You can locate them from the Spiritualist Church website. But one of their most famous camps here in the States is Lily Dale. It is truly a unique community. My husband and I were fortunate to stay there for a couple days a few years back and we totally enjoyed it. Many mediums make their homes there and several circles are offered throughout the day. They also hold classes covering a variety of spiritual subjects and they have many guests come in to share their unique gifts as well. The whole place has an air of peace and well being. I hope to make it back again someday. We even looked longingly at some of the homes within the community that were up for sale. What a great place to live, we thought. Who knows … maybe someday …

Anyone and everyone is welcome to visit and stay at the Spiritualist Camps. They have very reasonable rates and if you are looking for an interesting experience, you should check them out!

My advice to readers of this blog who write asking for help with paranormal issues is often a suggestion that they visit a Spiritualist Church to find a medium or people experienced in such matters. If you ever read my replies to comments asking for help with ghosts, that’s what I often tell them. It’s good advice. I take it myself.

One thing I love about this blog is all the sharing done here. So many people experience the paranormal and it can be quite frightening. Well, I hope here they can discover that it isn’t all negative and bad and evil. No. The spirit world is as much God’s world as is the physical world! We are all beings of SPIRIT, possessors of the eternal soul. May peace be with you!!!

Many of you who follow my blog know that I grew up in a haunted house and because of that became interested in the paranormal. I’ve written blog posts about my experiences in that freaky old farmhouse and plan on releasing a book about it as well…which will really be a conglomeration of all those earlier blog posts. Since starting this blog a little over a year ago, I’ve received lots of comments and email from readers who have had or are having similar experiences and I thought it was time to write another post dealing with the issue of ghosts.

For those of you who have not been following my blog since the beginning…let me bring you up too speed real quick about me, my experiences and beliefs concerning ghosts, hauntings, and the like.

First, I am not a medium though I have had some experience communicating with “the other side” and I don’t consider myself any more psychic than anyone else (we all possess psychic ability). But I do actively pursue knowledge on spiritual matters and put to practice the things I learn. So, basically, I am the average person with an interest in the paranormal and everything that I do…you can do as well!

I was seven when my family moved into the farmhouse and I was fourteen when we moved out. We’d had enough of the paranormal activity there and really, once my dad finally caved to the idea of ghosts and accepted the fact that they truly existed…there was no staying there any longer.

Ghosts can be pretty scary. It’s unnerving to deal with something you can’t see. Scariest of all is the possibility of coming up against something evil. This fear alone scares most people off when it comes to spirit communication and hauntings. And really, that is quite understandable. No one in their right mind is going to want to deal with an evil entity. Heck, we don’t want to deal with bad people who are still LIVING let alone one who is dead! The unseen bad is the worst kind in many ways. I think this is because we feel powerless against it. How do you fight something you can’t see or touch?

Now, before I go on with my thoughts on that, let me explain that the things I have come to believe are a result of personal experience and acquired knowledge from other people or through books, television/movie/video and the like. I believe every medium of learning (such as those just mentioned) are methods used by God to teach us what we need to learn or remember. Now, I believe in God, obviously, and I also think of this Higher Power as “the Universe”. Did you notice that I said God uses the various methods to “teach” us something or to help us “remember” something? I say “remember” because I truly believe we know way more than we remember about who we are (spiritual beings!) and where we come from (spirit!). When going through the birth process, it seems we suffer some sort of amnesia and “forget” quite a bit about our spiritual selves, where it was we came from and what we are capable of.

I had a very vivid dream once (during a time when I was really going through a “spiritual awakening”) that I believe addresses this issue. By the way…I truly believe our dreams are the soul’s way of speaking to us! But anyway…I dreamed I was in spirit and preparing to come to earth (I was soon to be born into a physical body). A group of friends was with me and we were discussing my pending birth. I was sad to be leaving them and the spiritual world in which we lived. In my dream, I understood that I’d done this before (been born into other lives…so, yes, I do believe in reincarnation and living past lives!). I told my friends that THIS time I wasn’t going to forget who I was. I wasn’t going to forget them or my “real” life. They told me it would be impossible to hold on to the memory of our truth. But I was VERY determined! So when it was time to go (enter earthly life) I ascended a spiral staircase and as I went up the steps, I repeatedly looked down at my friends gathered below. I would then wave and say, “I won’t forget you!”. Finally, I reached the top of the stairs and the world in which I had to step into was dark. The staircase and all below was brightness and light and I remember not wanting to step off the staircase into the dark interior of life. But I had no choice and so as I moved away from the stairs, I kept glancing back toward the stairwell. The further away I walked, the smaller the lighted spot where the staircase was located. The world around me was dark and dismal and at first I was constantly glancing back to remind me of the staircase’s existence and to reassure myself that it was still there. I would NOT forget! But, the more I walked (moved through life…grew up), the more frightening the images around me became and the smaller the light when I turned back to look. I kept repeating in my head “I won’t forget” but it was getting harder to remember to do that for I was distracted by what was going on around me. Then something jumped out at me and scared me so bad I didn’t dare to turn around and look for the light. Instead, I focused more on what was in front of me rather than what was behind me and when I finally did turn back…I could no longer see the light and I didn’t remember WHY I was looking back! I had forgotten! And that’s when I woke up. That dream is as vivid to me today as it was when I had it…now over 20 years ago! Dreams that stay with us are very important to us on many levels and in this case it was a pretty big lesson!

It’s been said that children retain some spiritual connection at birth but as they age, the connection becomes lost (have you ever noticed that babies often seem to be looking at something you can’t see? Something that amazes and amuses them?). The harsher the life we live, the faster we forget. Eventually, we are left “in the dark” and all knowledge of the light is something we must now seek to remember. I think that is why Jesus was considered the “light of the world”. He came to teach us “the way” back into the light (to reopen our eyes that we may see!). But he isn’t the only one who came to help us poor lost souls. All those who are known as true spiritual teachers (across all religions)…they too have come to show us the way and help us to see.

So anyway, our biggest challenge as humans is to remember the “truth” about who we are. In seeking and finding the truth, we shall truly be set free…from fear, misery, pain and the like! I truly believe that those of us who ACTIVELY seek the truth will eventually discover it. Bit by bit, slowly but surely! Because of our Ego (and we ALL possess one), our “remembering” is often a slow process. Our Egos act as a personal “gatekeeper” of sorts. It limits our access to universal knowledge and keeps us firmly rooted in the physical world. The Ego controls what we accept as truth and the only way to get a truth past Ego’s gate is to do it in small increments! Once we learn and accept one thing…we can go on to learn and accept another. And so on.

When physical death occurs and a person enters spirit, they do one of the following: 1) hang out in the spirit world for awhile (maybe go through a “life review” process) and then prepare for another birth (reincarnate) 2) go on to Heaven or Hell…whichever is appropriate! 3) hang around the physical world and try to communicate with loved ones left behind…or whoever else they manage to make contact with! 4) become confused about their new state of being (and thus require help from the angels and/or mediums) 5) refuse to accept they are dead (and so require help from angels and/or mediums) or they might 6) hang around the physical world in order to cause mischief. Those that do this are more than likely the “evil” ones we are so afraid to encounter. No doubt they are also avoiding Hell or whatever they must face for the evil deeds they conducted when they were alive!

The ones who are just trying to communicate (either to impart a message or offer reassurance) or the ones who are confused about their new status as spirits (because of a sudden or violent death)…these, I think, are the most common situations in hauntings. It really isn’t unusual to encounter a spirit who is here to do nothing more than reassure us they are fine or to impart a message. Some, though, are concerned about the welfare of someone they left behind and so stick around to watch over them. As for the ones who are confused about their “death” or are afraid to move on…they really do need help…either from a medium or from an angel, a spirit guide. BUT, the ones who stick around because they are angry or intend to do harm, THESE are the ones we need to watch out for and avoid interacting with. And it is fear of these ones who cause most people to avoid spirit communication.

I know that was the case for me when I was living in that farmhouse. Although I knew some of the spirits there meant no harm, there was at least one who was not nice and because of that ONE, I was afraid of them all. Now, considering they never hurt any of us, I can’t think why I was so afraid all the time, but I was. It was this fear that I wanted to address in my third book of the Tess Schafer-Medium series that I’m writing. Book one…”Be Still, My Love” was about my character Tess Schafer dealing with her anger at God and struggling with her spiritual beliefs. Book two…”Hidden Voices” was about her expanding her gift and accepting who she is, what she does and being comfortable with it. Book three…”Vanquishing Ghosts” (to be released in late Spring!) has Tess confronting her fear of negative spirit activity. I wanted to show through this story that we have within us the capability to deal with anything…even evil spirits. I almost named the book “Conquering Fear” because that is exactly what Tess had to do.

Many people write to me expressing fear for some sort of spirit activity they are experiencing. Most all those cases sound to me like someone in spirit who knows them and wants to communicate with them. The spirits bothering these nice folks aren’t trying to frighten them. As I’ve mentioned…once we pass into spirit and we realize that we are very much “alive”, we want to come back and reassure those we love. We want to share the good news! Only now we are in spirit and our communication attempts accomplish nothing but fear. This is why visiting a reputable medium would be beneficial. There are a lot of frauds out there in the world taking advantage of peoples’ grief but there are also a lot of truly gifted mediums ready and willing and happy to help you! As I am a member of the Spiritualist Church, I am lucky enough to be around lots of mediums! My advice lately, for those who seem to have a particularly determined spirit bothering them, is that they should try and locate a Spiritualist Church and see one of their mediums.

Common paranormal experiences are the feeling of being watched, the feeling that someone is right next to you, a sudden chill or tingling feeling (this is more of a response from your spirit body which instantly recognizes when other spirits are nearby!). Things might move around. Rocking chairs will rock, curtains will riffle, a picture might fall (in many cases, the person in the picture is the spirit trying to communicate!), doors open or shut, lights come on or go off, electrical equipment might do the same – the radio or TV might change channels. In all cases, if a spirit is involved, then they are simply manipulating the matter around you to try and get your attention. The problem is…they get your attention alright but then what? You aren’t exactly ready to carry on a conversation are you? And even if you are…how do you go about it? In some cases, people do hear their name being called (a common occurrence actually!). So how do you communicate with a spirit that has managed to get your attention? If you aren’t a natural medium (let’s face it…some are just gifted in this area while others are not!) and you don’t want to pull out a Ouija board, just how are you expected to “talk”?

Well, one thing I often recommend is what is known as “automatic writing”. This is where you grab a pencil and some paper and invite the spirit to communicate with you by writing whatever it is they want to say (using your hand to write it of course…don’t expect the pencil to just lift up and start scribbling away!). The problem with this method is that many people think they are making it all up. I say this…so what? Make it up! Just where do you suppose the inspiration for the words you are writing is coming from? Where do the stories I write come from? Where does any thought come from that pops into our mind? Spirit! This sort of writing is also called “inspirational writing” because you are being inspired to write. Inspiration comes from spirit so inspire away!! The freer you give reign to write whatever enters your mind, the more of a message you are going to get.

Now, because we don’t want to encourage negative spirit interaction, I always make it clear that I don’t want to communicate with anyone who is negative in any way. If a message comes through that sounds threatening or makes you uncomfortable then you need to end the communication. Loving spirits with good intentions are not going to make you feel that way. When a loving spirit wants too communicate with you, that is what you are going to feel…loving energy. You are going to feel GOOD inside. Happy. Peaceful. If you feel none of those things…then you simply tell the spirit that you will NOT communicate with it and that it is not to bother you any more and then BLESS the spirit and send it away. If you are still bothered after that, then find a medium and take care of the problem. Unfortunately, there is the possibility that a particularly nasty spirit isn’t going to obey your command (though I do believe this is rare!). The thing to remember is that here in the physical world…we who are in a physical body are in charge. Those in spirit can only operate in spirit. They can manipulate matter to a degree but once you take charge of the situation…through prayer, faith, and fearlessness…the spirit has no power. I truly believe this. I try to show this through my character Tess. I put her in situations in which she must handle spirit activity…the positive and the negative…and how she does that is how it can truly be done. I feel inspired while writing those stories. And where did I say inspiration comes from? Yeah…I feel spirit is helping me write the Tess Schafer series. I don’t doubt it a bit.

So anyway…the next time you think a spirit is haunting you, you now have options. Tell it to go away or communicate with it. But if you are not comfortable doing either of those things…find someone who will! Just remember, though, that we are all spiritual beings and you have within you the capability to deal with spirit…effectively and safely!!

When “The Secret” came out, I jumped on that band wagon as fast as a kitten pounces on rolling balls of yarn. The concept made sense to me and I immediately “tried” to incorporate the concepts into my daily life. The problem? My stubborn, don’t-believe-anything-unless-it’s-proven-beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt and always-expect-the-worst Ego! I don’t know about any of you but I can be very self-defeating at times! I can also be my own best friend. But that darned Ego of mine will jump in any chance it gets to ruin that friendship! It’s a constant battle…which is really age-old…you know the one I’m talking about – the “good versus evil” thing. (sigh) In fact, I think the Ego we all possess is the equivalent to “the devil on our shoulder” … the one that whispers all sorts of falsehoods and self-defeating flimflam in our ear.

Now I don’t really want to label my Ego as “evil”…because first of all, we are really quick to “label” things aren’t we? Once something gets a label then all sorts of problems start sprouting from it. Labels create … dare I say it? PROFILING! Yes. It does. Think about it…every time you paste a label on something, the description of that label defines its profile and that’s all she wrote, folks. Once a label is created, its damned near impossible to break free of it, and the opinions everyone wants to make of it. We can’t help it…our Egos make us do it (that little devil again!) and like it or not…we all must have an Ego to survive this physical, 3rd dimension world of ours.

I was in the military for twenty long-assed years. I say it that way because proud as I am of my service to our great country…it was not an easy career for me. I was in a career field that made me a big-time minority … a FEMALE in a MAN’S world (it was like 95 percent male!). How dare I, right? So anyway, my first label was “FEMALE” (not in the “she’s of the female gender” kind of female but in the “she’s a female in a career field she has no business being in and we are going to make her TRY and prove her worth over and over and yet it still won’t matter to us” sort of female). The second label (and the one that pissed me off more than the first one!) came as time went on…”Slut” (honestly I totally resent that darned word! It makes me cringe even typing it). That label came from the fact that I was often the only female in a sea of men and so the reasoning was that a good majority of those I chose to hang out with were more than likely my temporary bed partners (because men and women can’t be friends don’t-cha know). I tell you…I had it better than Casanova himself! (NOT!). The “slut” label actually came into play my second year in when I wash shipped off to Korea for a year (leaving behind my INFANT son…my first born, my pride and joy, the love of my life). My husband was sent to a different base because heaven forbid we get stationed together! There were 4 females in my unit at that base and we were all scattered to different work sections (either they tried to keep us together or they tried to keep us apart!). So we didn’t really see each other very much. I had two choices…hang out with my fellow male co-workers or spend a year in a strange foreign country all by my lonesome self. Though I like my own company, I also like to be around other people. Especially when I was over there, because when I was alone…I thought about how much I missed my baby! I soon learned through the fastest, most unrelenting, truth-has-no-purpose-here grapevine that EVERY male I was seen with was sleeping with me! Heck, I think they even had me hooked up with a couple of the girls! At first I was indignant. Then it got so ridiculous that it actually became amusing. I eventually joined in on the fun and made up some great “tall tales” of my own. I figured they shouldn’t be the only ones having fun in the story telling department. Especially as I’m a writer at heart and making up stories is my most favorite thing of all! Over time, I think I won most of them over and the slut rumors fell off…a little bit anyway. The new ones coming in had to be properly trained on this “labeling” problem and so it was ongoing (sigh).

So anyway…I’ve always been resentful of the story above and swore someday I was going to write about it! So, now that I’ve exorcised that out of my soul, I can get on with this post! Back to the labeling thing. My tireless Ego is always labeling things for me. I play along with it until I realize it’s getting out of hand and then I put on the brakes and try to undo the damage. Another word for “labeling” is “judging”. We assign labels, we pass judgments…it’s what our Egos are supposed to do. Let me tell you…conquering this aspect of the Ego is one of the biggest challenges we face in this world!! The worst of it? When we judge and label ourselves. Most of us are way too critical and hard on our selves. I see it all the time. “I’m stupid”, “I’m weak”, “I’m clueless”, “I’m worthless”, “I’m bad”, “I’m no good”, “I can’t” and so on and so on. Those are labels we’ve placed on ourselves (and often on others as well) and those are judgments. You want to be happy in life? Stop the labeling and judging. Easier said than freaking done! In fact…very few people have accomplished it.

Point in case: I am a big “reality TV” fan. I love to watch competition shows…The Voice, American Idol, X-Factor, America’s Got Talent, The Taste, Hell’s Kitchen, Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Best Dance Crew (just to name a few). Never am I more judgmental than when watching those shows! I’m worse than the judges. In fact, I am judging them too while I’m at it!! Yeah, it can get pretty bad. I’m always like “What?! You picked him? You like her? You’re kicking him off the show? You kept her of all people?”… it seems I am more often than not, disagreeing with the judges judgments (because of course MY judgments are right! Right?). Recently, I let myself get worked up over the process now going on with American Idol. The judges were picking the next “Idols” to compete on the show and I’m all over it with the judgments and labels. I justify it by saying as long as I’m not telling them (the contestants) how I feel to their faces, it doesn’t matter. But you know…it does! It does because it matters to ME. I am affected by my judgments. And it finally hit me upside the head that I need to STOP!

And this is where that “secret to a happy life” comes in to play. Here me out. Have you ever heard a song, saw a movie or television show, read a book or a poem, saw a picture or other works of art that you thought was AWFUL? And YET…it was a hit, worth big money, and all-the-rage? How is it do you think that those things did so well EVEN THOUGH, in your intelligent opinion they were crap…or at least “not that great and certainly not worth the fuss”? For instance…Idol loves to humiliate people (and I’m really not liking this segment any more though I used to be amused by it) by putting their “worst hopeful try-outs” on the air and in such a way that you KNOW they are making fun of them. These are the singers that most people will agree don’t really have the “Idol star factor”. BUT…one year a contestant by the name of William Hung hit the “big time” and became an overnight sensation. Not because he was the “best singer to ever compete”, no. He was actually part of the “Idol’s worst competitors” segment. And this guy who would generally not be considered a great singer was selling his songs to a public fan base that loved him! You want to know Hung’s secret to his success? He BELIEVED in himself. He truly believed he had a great talent to share and the Universe went along with it. So this is my point…it DOES NOT MATTER if you are the BEST WRITER, or the BEST SINGER, or the BEST DANCER or whatever…you don’t have to be THE BEST. You just have to BELIEVE IN YOUR SELF.

That’s the whole message behind “The Secret”. I think that’s one of the messages Jesus tried so hard to get through our thick noggins! (which isn’t our fault really because the Ego does wrap us in a thick “fog” designed to keep us from THE TRUTH!). You know that whole “Seek and ye shall find” thing mentioned in the bible? Yeah…I think it was talking about seeking TRUTH through the process of believing in our self! Once we believe we are worthy, loving souls with the power to manifest our dreams and have the life we WANT, then accept it and KNOW it…happiness can and will be achieved!

I’m at the point where I now understand that successful, happy people are those who BELIEVE they are worthy of that success and happiness. They believe in themselves…they KNOW they have something worthwhile to offer the world and the Universe is going along with it because that’s how it works. Ever met a successful, happy person who thinks they are worthless and has no talent or anything worthwhile to offer anyone? I don’t think so. And no…it’s not because THOSE people actually DO have something to offer and really are worthy while all the rest of the sad, unsuccessful people do not fall into that category. I know plenty of people with awesome talent. My daughter for instance. She has a beautiful voice. Everyone tells her so. She enjoys singing even. BUT she doesn’t have enough belief in herself to do anything with it. And another thing…she’s beautiful. Really (and she didn’t get it from me I’m sad to say…and there you see it, my own judgment being passed!). But she doesn’t think she is beautiful. And so she’s sad a lot. I pray she comes to believe in herself for the beautiful, smart, talented, loving soul that she is. I feel this way about all my kids, by the way. They are all talented, smart, beautiful and wonderful people (am I lucky or what?!!). But that doesn’t mean they don’t struggle to master the secret to a happy life. Sadly, very few of us do master it. And the ones you THINK are happy and have mastered it? They probably haven’t either. I mean…look at that beautiful country star Mindy McCready that just committed suicide a couple days ago! She had an awesome talent…a beautiful voice, she was lovely…she should have been living the good life and some people probably thought she was…and she was so miserable she killed herself. And who would have believed that “TomKat” would have split (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes)? They made a beautiful pair, they had tons of money and talent and they were so in love (remember Tom jumping on that sofa while chatting with Oprah?). So, even those who SEEM to have it made…often don’t. It’s a lesson for us all when we see these so called “beautiful people…the rich and famous…the ones who have it all” fall to sadness, divorce, addictions and suicide. Obviously there had to be a major disconnect with their beliefs…either in themselves or with others…to fall into despair or out of love!

This pretty significant epiphany came to me last week while watching American Idol and the choosing of the top twenty contestants. I didn’t agree with all the judges choices. I thought some of those chosen were the wrong choices and that some of those that were let go was a huge mistake. And then, after letting my Ego take control for awhile and getting all sorts of annoyed, my nicer side (what I like to call my consciousness which is closely connected to my soul and thus the voice of reasoning and love!) finally had enough and spoke up. I listened.

“Deb, ” I said to myself, “you have got to stop getting upset and worked-up over other peoples’ success or failure.” (the “failure” I’m talking about in this case are those not getting chosen for the top twenty on American Idol!) How it works is simple. Those that made it through…they BELIEVED in themselves. They believe they have talent and thus something to offer. And they believed it over those who said, “I can’t believe it. They just made a huge mistake!” Now when I talk about people who believe in themselves…I’m not talking about the cocky ones who walk around as if they are the greatest thing since sliced bread (not that I really get that cliché because personally, I don’t think anything is greater than homemade bread and that isn’t sliced until you need it!). The ones that love tooting their own horn to a pretty high degree are usually not as confident as they sound. More often than not, you’ll probably discover that its a front for a lack of self-esteem…and thus a lack in “belief in self”. So back to my conversation. “Deb, you need to watch and learn. Those people who made the cut that you don’t think are as great as some of those who didn’t make it…THEY believe in their talent. THAT’S what got them through!” So, instead of getting all bent out of shape about it (I can get really emotionally attached to these shows, let me tell ya!), I’m going to try hard to remind myself when my Ego starts to rear its ugly head, that I should not be judging other peoples’ successes and failures. Their life is their journey to make and I have no right to pass judgment on it. I mean…after all…I want people to support MY dreams! I do! How often do I check to see how my book sales are coming along? How often do I check to see if anyone has left a review and what they had to say if they did? Speaking of reviews…people can really show their criticism or approval in very distinct ways! I get the full spectrum…”hated it!” to “love it!”and even a few in-betweens…”It was okay” or “not bad”. Those are judgments and they are wanted/expected/prayed for judgments! (the good ones anyway!) In all honesty though…even the bad reviews are something to be proud of. I mean…I made someone care enough to get annoyed or upset or whatever and then write about it!! Think about that one. How often have you been annoyed and done nothing? Because it just didn’t matter enough to do anything. So, the fact my book mattered enough…even to leave a bad review…well, then it moved them and that’s all any of us writers can hope for!

So that’s it. The secret to a happy life. BELIEVE that you are WORTHY! KNOW that everyone has something to offer and when you put yourself out there, believing that you have something worth while to give, then the Universe (God, the Creator, Infinite Intelligence…or whatever you call it) will go along with it and respond accordingly. And yes…I KNOW it’s easier said than done. Am I mega-successful yet? Meaning, have I sold a gazillion books? No. Have I made it to the New York Times Best Seller List (my longtime dream!!)? No. Though I did make it to the #1 spot on Amazon’s Free Books List and to the #1 spot on Amazon’s “Ghosts” books!! Baby steps. I’m still learning how to master this easy-peasy secret to a happy life. But my gosh is it HARD!!

So, here’s to wishing you success in your dreams. Here’s to believing in YOU and what you have to offer! Here’s to one of God’s greatest achievements! YOU!!! I think we forget that sometimes. We were all created by God and God does not make crap!! WE might turn things into crap…but God does not!

Until next time…Peace Out and Many blessings to all of you!!

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Deborah J. Hughes

Writer/blogger of stories with supernatural/paranormal content. There is more to this world than what we think we see and know. I like to discover what those things are. One way I do this is through writing. Truth is hidden in layers, my goal is to peel through them and find the knowledge hidden within. For those who seek, it is they who shall find!